Elizabeth Kathryn Gerold-Miller, a Catholic write-at-home mother of four from Long Island, shares poetry and prose about the family life and other topics of interest.

Friday, May 1, 2015

Ally-Saurus and the First Day of School: an interview with Richard Torrey

The phone rang. “Hello,” said Richard Torrey, whom I
only knew as the author-illustrator of the incredibly clever book I had just
received and enjoyed with my eight-year-old daughter. I had no notes prepared
for my telephone interview, and as it turned out, this seemed to suit Mr.
Torrey’s style just fine.

“My daughter and I loved Ally-saurus,” I told Torrey,
“We think it is just perfect for a child who is headed for their first day of
school.”

“Well,” he replied, “these are trying times…” He
explained that the first day of anything, whether it was the first day of
school or the first day of camp, was tough for a kid. “You can equate it to
that feeling of walking the plank…it’s like entering another universe.”

Ally-saurus is the preferred moniker of a little girl
who is just waking up for her first day of school. She and her surroundings are
illustrated in dark grey pencil, while her stuffed dinosaurs are lightly
colored in pastel, and a dinosaur’s spikes and tail are drawn onto her head and
back in pink crayon. Ally-saurus starts off appearing confident, although it
soon becomes apparent that she is different from the other kids. By the middle
of the book, the other students can be seen wearing their imagined armor of
princesses, an astronaut, a lion, a pirate, a butterfly, and a dragon.
Embracing their differences, by the end of the day the children are getting along
splendidly, and the next day Ally jumps out of bed, excited for her next day’s
adventures.

The idea of Ally originated with his son, who was
always the tiniest in his class or sports team. When he was four years old, he
stated that he was a giant dog, “and he was very serious”, said Torrey. That imagined appearance was “like armor…it
helped him to get through being the smallest”.Torrey started to
experiment with ways to draw a child’s imagination without using words. The
character of Ally started as a penciled doodle in Torrey’s “idea book”, with a
dinosaur’s tail drawn in crayon to demonstrate the notion that she thought she
was a dinosaur.

I asked Torrey about how he got started in his career
as an author-illustrator. He describes his journey as a “series of happy
accidents”. Born in Los Angeles, he
originally went to Alleghany College as a pre-med major, which he switched to
psychology; he has lived on Long Island ever since he graduated. Richard’s
father was the Hockey Hall-of-Famer, Bill Torrey, who managed the Islanders
during the years they built the team that would win the Stanley Cup. “Those
were very good times…Islander fans are special…it’s an era that is ending,”
said Richard. He is very sad to see the
Islanders leaving Long Island. “Long Island kids won’t have a home team.”

Richard never took art classes, but he loved
cartooning. For his fourth birthday, his great-grandparents gave him the book The Story of Ferdinand, by Munro Leaf. Robert
Lawson’s ink drawings of Ferdinand were the early seeds of his career. He always loved the Peanuts cartoon strip in
particular, and part of his inspiration comes from Charles M. Schultz. When he
was still in grade school, Richard met Schultz at an Oakland Seals hockey game.
Richard decided to show his drawing of a horse to Schultz, who then drew Snoopy
on the back of the picture – Richard still has it.

Torrey worked for the Islanders after college, while
constantly drawing in his spare time. When a syndicated cartoonist saw his
work, he got what some might call a “lucky break”, although for many years he
had to work harder to sell his ideas because of his lack of professional
experience. He was learning to be an illustrator as well as a writer while
creating Hartland and PETE AND CLETE. At one point he reached
a cross-roads as newspapers started to evolve, and editors could not decide
whether to put his strip in the comics or sports section. He went to work for Recycled Paper Greetings, where he still
does work. He also did freelance
magazine illustrations, until he was discovered by an agent who was looking for
drawings for a sample book.

After illustrating other authors’ books for a few
years, he decided to write his own. His first dozen or so ideas failed to sell,
and his agent advised him to “write what you know”. This naturally brought him
to his own world, parenting young children who played sports, and his first
books were born. When asked what he would advise young writers/illustrators,
Torrey said, “Somebody’s gonna do it, so why not you”…”you have to have skin
like a rhinoceros”, but if you love it and believe in your talent, there is no
reason to believe that you cannot do what you want to do with that gift. He
quoted Richard Bach, who once said, “A professional writer is an amateur who
didn't quit”.

Torrey lives on Long Island with his wife and two
children. He has been teaching cartooning and manga art at the Art League of
Long Island in Dix Hills for over twenty years. He is always looking to try his
hand at new things. His latest project was putting together his new website,
which he is very proud of. At www.richardtorrey.com
(don’t forget the e in torrey or you will come across a fashion site) you can
view Richard’s illustrations, idea sketches, and information about his published
books an even dozen. His 13th
book, My Dog, Bob, will be released
in September 2015.

Ally-Saurus and the First Day of
School

Written and illustrated by Richard
Torrey

Published by Sterling Publishing

Published May 2015

Price $14.95

Ages 3-6

Hardcover/ISBN 978-1-4549-1179-1

*I have also posted this article at The Long Island Motherhood Examiner and Catholic Media Review.On a side-note for my regular readers, I love Torrey's attitude toward life, family, and career. There is a terrific word for what he calls "happy accidents" - serendipitous events are blessings that come along when you are not looking for them. When we are open to embrace what life has for us, rather than meticulously planning our lives, we set ourselves up for the receipt of untold joys. Something about our conversation echoed to me the attitude of Odd Thomas, the main character in a series I am reading by the best-selling Catholic thriller writer Dean Koontz. Odd Thomas doesn't believe in over-preparing, because life throws the strangest things at him all the time. He has to trust that he will know what to do when the moment calls for it. In an interview with ETWN, Koontz says that by the end of the eighth book, Saint Odd, the character will have achieved a state of perfect humility.